“Day of the Dead” Recap: Out With a Bang

Syfy’s original horror series Day of the Dead returned last Friday with its third episode, “The Grey Mile”, and it has turned up the heat with more Bowman family scandal, Cleargenix corruption, and loads more gore.

“He’s alive!” | At the Grey Mile Retirement home, Pops’ looming threat weighs heavily on Mayor Paula Bowman (Miranda Frigon), but not as heavily as the task to dispose of the corpse of an anti-fracking activist her husband Trey (Christopher Russell) accidentally killed with a ricocheted bullet. I suppose blackmail would be the least of one’s worries if you were trying to cover up a murder. Paula, Trey, and Paula’s campaign manager (and Trey’s mistress) Nicole (Caitlin Stryker) return to the television room where Trey had left the body of the protestor only to find a very “alive” zombie munching on a human leg with body bits and blood splatters strewn across the wrecked recreation room. A brave Paula goes in gun drawn to search for the ravaging zombie after it slips away. Paula decides to take advantage of this situation and kill the undead activist so that she can claim the title of “hero” and hopefully earn more votes for her mayoral election race.

No Police. No Hospitals. | Lauren (Natalie Malaika) and Cam (Keenan Tracey) are driving around town with Jai (Dejan Loyola) unconscious in the back of the hearse cozied up to a dead body. In the previous episode, Lauren had struck Jai with the car when he bolted into the street. Cam insists on reporting the accident to the authorities but Lauren resists, confiding in Cam that she is on parole. Jai wakes in a daze but is able to recount his discovery of the zombified person he stumbled upon out at the golf course. Jai takes notice of the bad state of Lauren’s zombie bite and convinces Lauren to allow him to treat her wound. They head to the Grey Mile Retirement home because Lauren refuses to go to a hospital.

Sarah Won’t Be Silenced | Sarah Blackwood (Morgan Holmstrom) is heading home after disclosing information about the body and Detective McDermott (Mike Dopud) in the Cleargenix drill hole to Dr. Logan (Lucia Walters). Little does Sarah know, Dr. Logan sent Sarah’s supervisor Rhodes (Kevin O’Grady) to silence her and prevent anyone else from learning about the mess on Cleargenix’s hands. Rhodes tries to kill Sarah, but with a little ingenuity, Sarah sets a booby trap that gives Rhodes a hefty blow to the throat and allows her to escape and arm herself with a rifle of her own.

Pops’ Blackmail | The chaotic trio are still on the hunt for their human-eating activist when Paula confides in Nicole with the secret that Pops is holding over her head: Trey isn’t Luke’s (Daniel Doheny) biological father. For Nicole, this is further motivation to cut Paula out of the picture so that she and Trey can pursue their relationship. Nicole decides to take the ammunition out of Paula’s gun in the hopes that Paula will get eaten by the zombie they’re after. Nicole’s plan later backfires when Nicole is attacked by the zombie and Paula is unable to take the zombie out with her sharpshooter skills.

Back to the Drill Site | Dr. Logan is keeping a bitten McDermott locked up at a Cleargenix laboratory. During an assessment of McDermott’s severed finger, the finger comes to life and Dr. Logan is prompted to explore the Cleargenix dig site where McDermott was bitten. Inside the hole, Dr. Logan finds a mysterious, wooden mask in close proximity to the body they want to remove. Dr. Logan’s assistant attempts to unchain the body when the body suddenly rises and rips the assistant to splattering shreds. Meanwhile, McDermott is beginning to turn into a zombie himself.

Skewered | After losing Nicole to the undead, Paula and Trey find themselves face-to-face with the zombie again, but this time Paula is armed and ready. Paula unloads an entire clip in the zombie, but the zombie ceases to keel over. Quick thinking leads Paula to impale the walking dead with a Mawinhaken city flag and pin him to the wall.

Out with a Bang | Jai is treating Lauren’s bite when the two of them find Mrs. French (Paula Shaw) hiding in the examination room. Mrs. French had just finished a cigarette and was catching her breath with an oxygen tank. Before Jai could lecture Mrs. French about smoking, zombies begin to infiltrate the retirement home. Jai, Lauren, Cam, and Mrs. French devise a plan to trap the zombies in the facility by pulling the fire alarm system which locks down the fire alarm doors. By banging bed pans and blowing whistles, Lauren and Jai lure the crowd of zombies into the room where they will be trapped; However, when Cam pulls the alarm, the door gets jammed up by a zombie. Mrs. French ends her life in a literal blaze of glory when she blows up the zombies using her oxygen tank and a lighter, saving the lives of Lauren, Jai, and Cam.

Lake Party Blues | Back at the lake, Luke Bowman tells Trent that he and Cam had been best friends at one point. Trent was more interested in finding the Senior Cut Day party, so Trent ditches Luke when he hears what sounds like the party. The episode closes with another cliff-hanger when Luke gets attacked by a flesh-eating zombie.

Day of the Dead airs Fridays on SYFY at 10/9c.